Meeting Recap January 25

Posted by Wes Baumann

There we 30 members in attendance at this week’s meeting, including Mark Shusteff, Facility Operation Manager, representing the Community House. The club welcomed back Marie Kuipers who had been on an extended leave. There was one guest, Rick Boerjesson, a chiropractor from Sweden now living with his family in Winnetka. He was attending his third meeting and will soon be a full-fledged member.

President Tom announced that the final decision on our weekly raffle would be to award $5 to the winning ticket holder if they do not pull the ace of hearts. It is hoped that this change will entice more members to ‘invest’ in the raffle and thus help the Club’s Foundation. A new deck of cards will be introduced at the first meeting of January and July if there are no winners in the six month period. This new version of the raffle will be a trial for the next six months.

Tom also reported that a plaque dedicated to Bill Hadley, founder of Hadley School for the Blind, was found in the Rotary closet by John Thomas. Bill lost his sight in his middle years, taught himself braille and then decided to assist other blind persons by establishing a school to teach braille by mail. The school now has 10,000 enrolled. There are students in all 50 states and 100 foreign countries. The suggestion was made to donate the plaque to the Hadley School to stress our support for this great school.

John Thomas announced that the Winnetka Youth Organization would be holding an Open House this Sunday, January 28th. The purpose is to show off their rehabbed facility following significant flood damage. The location of the WYO is in the lower level of the Community House, just below the room where we have our meetings.

Terry Dason of the Winnetka-Northfield Chamber of Commerce, announced that the Chamber sponsers reasonably priced travel programs. There is an amazing Danube River cruise in Eastern Europe scheduled for this October. The trip includes a night in Munich and 7 nights on the river. If you book now you can save up to $2400 per cabin. Prices include airfare. Contact Terry at the Chamber for more information.

Happy Buck$ this week came from David Birkenstein, Marie Kuipers, our speaker - Robert Beezat and John Thomas.

Robert Mardirossian provided some humor with some WWII ‘stories’ for Dig ‘n Grin.

David Birkenstein introduced the speaker Robert Beezat for his second appearance. His topic was ”Character Based Management” which is the title of his most recent book. Bob spoke to us about five years ago about his first book “Knowing and Loving.” He is a veteran manager who has served as city/village manager in several communities in the Midwest. Mr. Beezat has also served as an adjunct professor at a number of universities teaching business, human resource and supervisory management courses.

Robert’s talk was accompanied by a Power Point presentation. The premise of his presentation was that good character makes for a good boss. In his consulting he frequently asks his audience to write down words that describe the worst boss and the best boss they have experienced. Traits most often expressed for best boss included – honest, good communicator, treats you with respect, wants you to succeed, helps you solve problems and stands behind you.

Our character is the sum of our knowledge, beliefs, emotions, relationships and role models. If we can improve our own character it is more likely to improve productivity, effectiveness as well as job satisfaction. During his presentation Robert referred to Rotary’s Four Way Test. Being able to answer yes to all four questions of the test will be an indicator of good character and an increase the chances of being a good manager.

Robert’s Power Point presentation featured many slides with snappy suggested traits, such as:

“Management – Getting work done with and through others that one person cannot do alone”

“Involving employees in defining and solving a problem”

“Not be afraid to be challenged by employees”

“Helping our people solve work-related problems”

“Genuinely respecting and caring for employees”

“Treating everyone equitably and fairly”

“Being a person of our word”

Mr. Beezat further related that you can improve your character by a lot of practice and remembering that we will never be perfect, but we can always get better by growing your heart and mind every day!